Copper alloys for electronic materials used in various electronic components such as connectors, switches, relays, pins, terminals and lead frames, are required to achieve a balance between high strength and high electrical conductivity (or thermal conductivity) as basic characteristics. In recent years, high integration, small and thin type electronic components are in rapid progress, and in this respect, the demand for a copper alloy to be used in the components of electronic equipment is rising to higher levels.
From the viewpoints of high strength and high electrical conductivity, the amount of use of precipitation hardened copper alloys is increasing in replacement of conventional solid solution hardened copper alloys represented by phosphor bronze and brass, as copper alloys for electronic materials. In a precipitation hardened copper alloy, as a supersaturated solid solution that has been solution heat treated is subjected to an aging treatment, fine precipitates are uniformly dispersed, so that the strength of the alloy increases and the amount of solid-solution elements in copper decreases, increasing electrical conductivity. For this reason, a material having excellent mechanical properties such as strength and spring properties, and having satisfactory electrical conductivity and heat conductivity is obtained.
Among precipitation hardened copper alloys, Cu—Ni—Si system copper alloys, which are generally referred to as Corson system alloys, are representative copper alloys having relatively high electrical conductivity, strength and bending workability in combination, and constitute one class of alloys for which active development is currently underway in the industry. In this class of copper alloys, an enhancement of strength and electrical conductivity can be promoted by precipitating fine Ni—Si intermetallic compound particles in a copper matrix.
Recently, attention is paid to Cu—Ni—Si—Co system alloys produced by adding Co to Cu—Ni—Si system copper alloys, and technology improvement is in progress. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-242890 (Patent Literature 1) describes an invention in which the number density of second phase particles having a particle size of 0.1 μm to 1 μm is controlled to 5×105 to 1×107 particles/mm2, in order to increase the strength, electrical conductivity and spring bending elastic limit of Cu—Ni—Si—Co system alloys.
This document discloses a method for producing a copper alloy, the method including conducting the following steps in order:
step 1 of melting and casting an ingot having a desired composition;
step 2 of heating the material for one hour or longer at a temperature of from 950° C. to 1050° C., subsequently performing hot rolling, adjusting the temperature at the time of completion of hot rolling to 850° C. or higher, and cooling the material with an average cooling rate from 850° C. to 400° C. at 15° C./s or greater;
step 3 of performing cold rolling;
step 4 of conducting a solution heat treatment at a temperature of from 850° C. to 1050° C., cooling the material at an average cooling rate of greater than or equal to 1° C./s and less than 15° C./s until the material temperature falls to 650° C., and cooling the material at an average cooling rate of 15° C./s or greater until the material temperature falls from 650° C. to 400° C.;
step 5 of conducting a first aging treatment at a temperature of higher than or equal to 425° C. and lower than 475° C. for 1 to 24 hours;
step 6 of performing cold rolling; and
step 7 of conducting a second aging treatment at a temperature of higher than or equal to 100° C. and lower than 350° C. for 1 to 48 hours.
Japanese Patent Application National Publication (Laid-Open) No. 2005-532477 (Patent Literature 2) describes that in a production process for a Cu—Ni—Si—Co alloy, various annealing can be carried out as stepwise annealing processes, so that typically, in stepwise annealing, a first process is conducted at a temperature higher than that of a second process, and stepwise annealing may result in a more satisfactory combination of strength and conductivity as compared with annealing at a constant temperature.